Elton John's Christmas Party, various artists (Starbucks￼)￼￼

I realize a lot of folks are offended by the coffee grinder's attempts to appropriate the listening experience to move more beans, but I say anything that distracts folks from buying yet another Rod Stewart "classic songbook" album has to be a good thing. In this case, we have a Starbucks-only Christmas collection for 2005 curated by Elton John that puts some hard-to-find goodies alongside some all-time favorites on a single disc and throws in an exclusive duet with Joss Stone, "Calling It Christmas." We get Elton's "Step Into Christmas," a couple of cuts from the Phil Spector album, Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," the Eagles' "Please Come Home For Christmas," Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" and the Beach Boys' "Man With All the Toys." Along with that, Elton gives us "It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas" by Pet Shop Boys, "A Change at Christmas" by Flaming Lips, "December Will Be Magic Again" by Kate Bush and "Spotlight on Christmas" by Rufus Wainwright. And don't forget "New Year's Day" by U2 and "St. Patrick's Day" by John Mayer (huh? Oh, OK, never mind). UPDATE:￼ I've seen this on the shelves at regular stores for 2006. FURTHER UPDATE: Catherine Livingston lets us know the updated edition of this compilation is shy six tunes: Bruce and the Eagles, the two Spector album cuts, John Mayer and Outkast. The latter two might be the harder ones to track down, but most folks probably have the other four. Thankfully, the otherwise-rare Pet Shop Boys cut remains. Not available as a download and currently out of print, but 3rd parties at Amazon appear to have copies of the original 2005 version and the abridged 2006 version.

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